IC-NRLF
SB 3M
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
HORSES
PAST AND PRESENT
SADDLE AND PILLION.
(From "The Procession of the Flitch of Bacon," by THOMAS STOTHARD, R.A.)
HORSES
PAST AND PRESENT
BY
SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.
ILLUSTRATED
VINTON & Co., LTD.
9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.G.
1900
GTf 7
CONTENTS.
PAGK
Introduction i
Before the Conquest 2
William the Conqueror 5
William Rufus 7
Henry 1 7
Henry II. ... ... .... 8
Richard 1 9
John ... .... 10
Edward II ... n
Edward III 12
Richard II. ... -... ... .,, 15
Henry VII 17
Henry VIII ... "'.., 18
Edward VI. and Queen Mary 22
Elizabeth 24
James I. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 30
Charles 1 33
The Commonwealth 36
Charles II ... ... 38
William III 41
Queen Anne 43
George 1 46
George II 48
George III 52
George IV 59
William IV 60
Her Majesty Queen Victoria 62
Light Horses: Breed Societies 88
Heavy Horses : Breed Societies 89
'19130
ILLUSTRATIONS.
A Cart-Horse of the XVth Century... Face p. 16
On Saddle and Pillion ... ,,28
Guy, Earl of Warwick, XVIth Century ... 32
The Darley Arabian ....... 46
Jacob Bates, The Trick Rider ... 5 2
Grey Diomed ... 55
Hunter Sire, Cognac ... ,,64
The Hack Hunter i> 70
The Norfolk Phenomenon 8o
This brief history of the Horse in England
to the close of the nineteenth century is a
compilation which, it is hoped, may prove
useful as well as interesting.
So much has been done to improve our
breeds of horses since the year 1800, and so
many and important have been the changes in
our methods of travel, in the use of heavy
horses in agriculture^ in hunting, racing and
steep lee hasing, that the latter portion of the
book might be amplified indefinitely.
It is not thought necessary to do more than
to^lch briefly upon the more important events
which have occurred during Her Majesty s
reign.
The interesting and instructive work by
Mr. Huth, which contains the titles of all
the books written in all languages relating
to the Horse shows that the number published
up to the year 1886 exceeds 4,060 : and since
that date, works on the Horse, embracing
veterinary science, breeding, cavalry, coaching,
racing, hunting and kindred subjects, have been
isszied from the publishing houses of Europe
at the rate of about two per month. During
the ten years 1886-95 upwards of 232 stich
works were issued, and there has been no per-
ceptible decrease during the last four years.
Under these circumstances an apology for
adding to the mass of literature on the Horse
seems almost necessary.
Elsenham Hall, Essex,
November, 1900.
HORSES PAST AND
PRESENT.
FIRST among animals which man has
domesticated, or brought under control to
do him service, stands the horse. The
beauty of his form, his strength, speed and
retentive memory, alike commend him to
admiration ; the place he holds, whether in
relation to our military strength, our com-
mercial and agricultural pursuits, or our
pleasures, is unique. Whether as servant
or companion of man the horse stands alone
among animals.
There can be no doubt but that the horse
was broken to man's service at an early
period of the world's history. The art of
taming him was first practised by the
peoples of Asia and Africa, who earliest
attained to a degree of civilisation ; but
whether he was first ridden or driven is a
question which has often been debated with
no definite result. The earliest references
to the use of horses occur in the Old Testa-
ment, where numerous passages make
mention of chariots and horsemen in con-
nection with all warlike operations.
BEFORE THE CONQUEST.
From very remote times England has
possessed horses which her inhabitants
turned to valuable account, as we find
occasion to note elsewhere* ; and the farther
she advanced on the path of civilisation the
wider became the field for utility open to
the horse. To the necessity for adapting
him to various purposes, to the carrying of
armour-clad soldiery, to draught, pack work,
hawking, hunting, coaching, for use in mines
where ponies are required, &c., we owe the
several distinct breeds which we now possess
in such perfection.
In early times horses were held the most
.valuable of all property in Britain ; we see
evidence of the importance attached to them
in the figures on ancient coins. The Vener-
able Bede states that the English first used
saddle horses about the year 631, when
* Ponies Past and Present. By Sir Walter Gilbey,
Bart , published by Vinton & Co., Limited.
prelates and other Church dignitaries were
granted the privilege of riding. This state-
ment needs qualification, for it is certain that
riding was practised by the ancient Britons
and their descendants ; we shall no doubt
be right in reading Bede's assertion to refer
o o
to saddles, which were in use among the
nations of Eastern Europe in the fourth
century. The ancient Greek and Roman
horsemen rode barebacked ; but a law in the
Theodosian Code, promulgated in the fifth
century, by which the weight of a saddle
was limited to 60 Roman Ibs., proves that
saddles were then in general use in the
Roman Empire.
The Saxon saddle was little more than a
pad ; this would give no very secure seat
to the rider, and therefore we cannot marvel
that the art of fighting on horseback re-
mained unknown in Britain until it was
introduced by our Norman conquerors.
Even after that epoch only the heavily-
mailed knights fought from the saddle ;
for some centuries subsequently the lightly
armed horsemen dismounted to go into
action, leaving their horses in charge of
those who remained with the baggage of
the army in the rear. It would be wrong
to call these troops cavalry ; they employed
horses only for the sake of greater mobility,
and were what in modern phrase are styled
mounted infantry.
Saxons and Danes brought horses of
various breeds into England, primarily to
carry on their warfare against the British ;
the most useful of these were horses of
Eastern blood, which doubtless performed
valuable service in improving the English
breeds. The Saxon and Danish kings of
necessity maintained large studs of horses
for military purposes, but whether they took
measures to improve them by systematic
breeding history does not record.
King Alfred (871 to 991) had a Master of
the Horse, named Ecquef, and the existence
of such an office indicates that the Royal
stables were ordered on a scale of consider-
able magnitude.
King Athelstan (925-940) is entitled to
special mention, for it was he who passed
the first of a long series of laws by which
the export of horses was forbidden. Athel-
stan's law assigns no reason for this step ;
but the only possible motive for such
a law must have been to check the trade
which the high qualities of English-bred
horses had brought into existence. At no
period of our history have we possessed
more horses than would supply our require-
ments, and Athelstan's prohibition of the
export of horses beyond sea, unless they
were sent as gifts, was undoubtedly due to a
oTowino; demand which threatened to pro-
O O JT
cluce scarcity. This king saw no objection
to the importation of horses : he accepted
several as gifts from Continental Sovereigns,
and evidently attached much value to them,
for in his will he made certain bequests of
white horses and others which had been
given him by Saxon friends.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (1066-1087).
William the Conqueror brought with him
many horses from Normandy when he in-
vaded England. Many of these were
Spanish horses, if we may apply to the
famous Bayeux tapestry the test of com-
parison. William himself, at Hastings, rode
a Spanish horse, which had been presented
to him by his friend, Alfonso of Spain, and
the riders on horseback on the tapestry show
that the Norman knights rode horses similar
in all respects to that of their leader. They
are small, probably not exceeding 14 hands,
and of course all stallions. Berenger*
* The History and Art of Horsemanship." By
Richard Berenger, Gentleman of the Horse to George
III., published 1771.
describes these horses as of a class adapted
to the "purposes of war and the exhibition
of public assemblies.''
There is nothing; to tell us when horses
o
were first used in agriculture in England ;
the earliest mention of such, some consider-
able research has revealed, is the reference
to " four draught horses " owned by the
proprietor of an Essex manor in the reign
of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).
Under the Norman and Plantagenet kings
the plough appears to have been adapted for
draught by either oxen or horses. The
former undoubtedly were the more generally
used, and continued in use until compara-
tively recent times in some parts of the
country.
One of the pieces of tapestry worked in
Bayonne in 1066 shows the figure of a man
driving a horse harnessed to a harrow. This
is the earliest pictorial evidence we possess
of the employment of the horse in field labour.
The Conqueror and his followers came
from a country in which agriculture was in
a more advanced state than it was in Eng-
land, and it cannot be doubted that the
Normans did much to promote the interests
of English husbandry.
WILLIAM RUFUS (1087-1100).
It was probably during the reign of
William Rufus that the first endeavour to
improve the British breed of horses was
made. Giraldus Cambrensis informs us
that Robert de Belesme brought Spanish
stallions to his property in Powysland,
Central Wales, and that to these importa
tions many years afterwards the district
owed its reputation for a superior stamp of
horse. The results of this enterprise were
certainly of a lasting character, for "a
Powys horse " occurs among the purchases
made by Edward II. (1272-1307), indicating
clearly that the locality still produced a good
stamp of animal.
HENRY I. (1100-1135).
King Henry I. would appear to have
taken an interest in the work of horse-breed-
ing. The scanty existing records of his
reign contain mention of a visit paid in 1130
to the royal manor at Gillingham, in Dorset-
shire, by a squire " with a stallion to leap
the king's mares." In this king's reign the
first Arabs were received in England from
Eastern Europe, in the shape of two horses,
with costly Turkish armour, as a gift. One
8
of these horses was retained in England
and the other was sent to King Alexander
I. of Scotland, who presented it to the
Church of St. Andrews.
HENRY II. (1154-1189).
Henry II. took a keen interest in horses,
and the records of his reign show us the
system then in vogue for the maintaining
the royal studs. The horses, in greater or
smaller numbers, with their grooms, were
placed under the charge of the Sheriffs of
counties, whose duty it was to provide them
with pasture, stabling, and all necessaries,
recovering the cost from the Exchequer.
The Tournament was introduced into Eng-
land in this reign ; but these knightly
exercises received little encouragement from
the king, who forbade them under ecclesias-
tical pressure.
William Stephanides, a monk of Canter-
bury, has left us a Latin tract or pamphlet
descriptive of the mounted sports of Lon-
doners in the latter half of the twelfth century,
which possesses both interest and value.
From this it is evident that races of a primi-
tive character, and sham fights of a rough
and ready kind had place among the re-
creations of the people of Henry II.'s time.
Smithfield, then a level expanse of grass
where periodical horse markets were held,
was the scene of these amusements :
" Every Sunday in Lent after dinner young men
ride out into the fields on horses which are fit for war
and excellent for their speed. The citizens' sons
issue out through the gates by troops, furnished with
lances and shields, and make representation of battle
and exercise and skirmish. To this performance
many young courtiers yet uninitiated in arms resort,
and great persons to train and practice. They begin
by dividing into troops ; some labour to outstrip their
leaders without being able to reach them ; others
unhorse their antagonists without being able to get
beyond them. At times two or three boys are set on
horseback to ride a race and push their horses to
their utmost speed, sparing neither whip nor spur." *
RICHARD I. (1189-1199).
Richard I., ignoring the opposition of the
Church, which held them dangerous alike to
body and soul, encouraged tournaments as
valuable training for his knights ; and it may
here be observed that from his time through
the succeeding ages until 1559, when a fatal
accident to King Henry II., of France, in
the lists, caused the institution to go out of
fashion, tournaments were held from time to
time in England. Some of our kings en-
* " London," by Stephanides. Leland's Itinerary,
vol. viii.
10
couraged them for military reasons ; others
discouraged them under Church influence, or
as records show, because they were produc-
tive of loss in horses and arms, which the
resources of the country could ill afford.
We find traces of the old " Justs of Peace,"
as tournaments were officially called, in the
names of streets in London. Knightrider
and Giltspur Streets, for example : the
former owed its name to the circumstance
that through it lay the route taken by knights
on their way from the Tower to the lists at
Smithfield ; the latter to the fact that the
makers of the gilt spurs worn by knights
carried on their business there. Cheapside
was the scene of some historical tournaments,
as were the Barbican and Roderwell. The
Tiltyard near St. James's was the exercise
ground of knights and gentlemen at a later
date.
JOHN (1199-1216).
King John reigned at a period when the
armour worn by mounted men was becoming
stronger, and when the difficulty of finding-
horses powerful enough to carry heavily
mailed riders was increasing. This sove-
reign, so far as can be discovered, was the
first to make an endeavour to increase the
size of our English breed of Great Horses ;
he imported from Flanders one hundred
stallions of large size. The Low Countries,
in the Early and Middle Ages, were the
breeding grounds of the largest and most
powerful horses known : and John's importa-
tions must have wrought marked influence
upon the British stock. He also purchased
horses in Spain which are described as
Spanish dextrarii, or Great Horses. Dex-
trarius was the name by which the war
horse was known at this period and for
centuries afterwards.
EDWARD II. (1307-1327).
Edward II. devoted both energy and
money to the task of improving our horses.
We have record of several horse-buying
commissions despatched by him to the Cham-
paign district in France, to Italy and other
parts vaguely described as "beyond seas."
One such commission brought home from
Lombardy thirty war horses and twelve
others of the heavy type. There can be no
doubt but that the foreign purchases of
Edward II. were destined for stud purposes ;
the more extensive purchases of his suc-
cessor, Edward III., suggest that he required
horses for immediate use in the ranks.
12
Husbandry in England was at a low ebb
during the thirteenth century, but towards
the end of Edward II.'s reign it began to
make progress in the midland and south-
western counties. The high esteem in which
o
English wool was held caused large tracts of
country to be retained as pasture for sheep
for a long period, and while farmers possessed
this certain source of revenue the science of
cultivation was naturally neglected.
EDWARD III. (1327-1377).
Edward III., to meet the drain upon the
horse supply caused by his wars with Scot-
land and France, bought large numbers of
horses on the Continent ; more, it would
appear, than his Treasury could pay for, as
he was at one time in the Count of Hainault's
debt for upwards of 25,000 florins for horses.
These were obviously the Great Horses for
which the Low Countries were famous ; all
the animals so imported were marked or
branded. Edward III. organised his re-
mount department on a scale previously
unknown in England. It was established in
two great divisions under responsible officers,
one of whom had charge of all the studs on
the royal manors north of the Trent, the
13
other exercising control of those south of
that boundary ; these two custodians being
in their turn responsible to the Master of the
Horse.
There is ample evidence to prove that
Edward III. took close personal interest
in horse-breeding, and it is certain that the
cavalry was better mounted in his wars than
it had been at any previous period. The
Great Horse, or War Horse, essential to the
efficiency of heavily armoured cavalry, was
by far the most valuable breed and received
the greatest meed of attention ; but the
Wardrobe Accounts of this reign contain
mention of many other breeds or classes of
horse indispensable for campaigning or useful
for sport and ordinary saddle work palfreys,
hackneys, hengests, and somers, coursers,
trotters, hobbies, nags, and genets.
The distinction between some of these
classes was probably somewhat slight. The
palfrey was the animal used for daily riding
for pleasure or travel by persons of the upper
ranks of life, and was essentially the lady's
mount, though knights habitually rode pal-
freys or hackneys on the march, while cir-
cumstances allowed them to put off for the
time their armour. The weight of this, with
the discomfort of wearing it in the cold of
H
winter and heat of summer, furnished suffi-
cient reason for the knights to don their mail
only when actually going into action, or on
occasions of ceremony.
" Hengests and somers " were probably
used for very similar purposes, as more than
once we find them coupled thus : these were
the baggage or transport animals, and were
doubtless of no great value. " Courser " is a
term somewhat loosely used in the old
records ; it is applied indifferently to the war
horse, to the horse used in hunting, and for
daily road work, but generally in a sense
that suggests speed. " Trotters," we must
assume, were horses that were not taught to
amble ; and the name was distinctive at a
period when all horses used for saddle by the
better classes were taught that gait. Edward
III.'s Wardrobe Accounts mention payment
for trammels, the appliances, it is supposed,
used for this purpose, and at a much later
date in another Royal Account Book, we find
an item " To making an horse to amble, 2
marks (135. 4d.)." The amble was a pecu-
liarly easy and comfortable pace which would
strongly commend itself to riders on a long
journey. Hobbies were Irish horses, small
but active and enduring ; genets were Span-
ish horses nearly allied to, if not practically
15
identical with, the barbs introduced into
Spain by the Moors. The animal described
as a "nag" was probably the saddle-horse
used by servants and camp followers.
RICHARD II. (1377-1399).
Richard II. was fond of horses and did
not neglect the interests of breeding ; though
he on one occasion displayed his regard in
a fashion which to modern minds is at
least high-handed. There was a scarcity
of horses in the early years of his reign,
and prices rose in conformity with the law
of supply and demand. Richard, consider-
ing only the needs of his knights, issued
a proclamation (1386) forbidding breeders
to ask the high prices they were demanding.
This proclamation was published in Lin-
colnshire, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire.
Passing mention may be made of an Act
which was placed on the Statute Book in
1396. In those days all travelling was
performed on horseback, and the equivalent
of the coach or jobmaster of much later
times was the hackneyman, who let out
horses to travellers at rates of hire fixed
by law. The hackneymen were in the very
nature of their business liable to be imposed
i6
upon by unprincipled persons, who would
demand horses from them without tender-
ing payment, on the false plea that they
were royal messengers journeying in haste
on business of the State. Not infrequently,
too, the hirer or borrower was none other
than a horse-thief, who rode the animal
into some remote country town, and sold
him to whoever would buy. Richard II.'s
Act of 1396, aimed at suppression of these
practices, laying penalties upon anyone found
guilty of them ; and it further called upon
the hackneymen to help themselves by
placing a distinctive mark on their horses.
Any animal bearing such a mark might be
seized by the hackneyman if he found it
in possession of another, and no compensa-
tion could be claimed by the person from
whose custody it was taken.
The earliest account of a race that we
can trace (apart from the sports at Smith-
field) refers to the year 1377, the first of
Richard's reign. In that year the King
and the Earl of Arundel rode a race* (par-
ticulars of conditions, distance, weights, &c.,
are wanting !), which it would seem was
won by the Earl, since the King purchased
* " The History of Newmarket." By T. P. Hore.
(3 vols.) H. Baily & Co. London, 1886.
> rt
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17
his horse afterwards for a sum equal to
,20,000 in modern money.
For nearly a hundred years after the
deposition of Richard II., the available
records throw little or no light upon our
subject. The Wars of the Roses (1450-
[471) were productive of results injurious
alike to agriculture, stock breeding, and
commerce. During a period when horses
for military service were in constant demand,
and were liable, unless the property of some
powerful noble, to seizure by men of either
of the contending factions, it was not worth
any man's while to breed horses, still less
to try to improve them. The fifteenth
century, therefore, or at least a considerable
portion of it, saw retrogression rather than
progress in English horse-breeding.
HENRY VII. (1485-1509).
Henry VIL, in 1495, found the horse
supply of the country so deficient, and the
prices so high, that he passed an Act for-
bidding the export of any horse without
Royal permission, on pain of forfeiture, and
of any mare whose value exceeded six
shillings and eightpence ; no mare under
three years old might be sent out of the
18
country, and on all exported a duty of six
shillings and eightpence was levied.
Under the old " Statutes of Arms "
Henry VII. established a force known as
Yeomen of the Crown. There were fifty
of these ; each yeoman had a spare horse
and was attended by a mounted groom. In
times of peace they acted as Royal messen-
gers carrying letters and orders. In dis-
turbed times they formed the backbone of
the militia levies.
HENRY VIII. (1509-1547).
Henry VIII. went a good deal further
in his efforts to foster and promote the
breeding of good horses. In 1514 he
absolutely forbade the export of horses
abroad, and extended the prohibition to
Scotland. He obliged all prelates and
nobles of a certain degree, to be ascertained
by the richness of their wives' dress, to
maintain stallions of a given stature. He
made the theft of horse, mare, or gelding
a capital offence, and deprived persons con-
victed under this law (37 Henry VIII., c. 8)
of the benefit of clergy. And by two Acts,
the gist of which will be found on page 5
et seq. of Ponies Past and Present, he made
19
a vigorous attempt to weed out the ponies
whose small size rendered them useless.
It is to be borne in mind that the King's
legislation against the animals that ran in the
forests and wastes aimed definitely at the
greater development and perfection of the
Great Horse. Armour during Henry VIII.'s
time had reached its maximum weight, and
a horse might be required to carry a load
of from 25 to 30 stone ;* hence very power-
ful horses were indispensable.
Henry's interest in horseflesh was not
confined to the breed on which the effi-
ciency of his cavalry depended. He was
a keen sportsman, who took a lively pleasure
in all forms of sport, and he appears to have
been the first king who ran horses for his
own amusement. It would hardly be correct
to date the beginnings of the English Turf
from Henry VIII.'s reign, as the "running
geldings " kept in the Royal Stables at
Windsor seem to have been run only against
one another in a field hired by the king for
the purpose.
The Privy Purse Expenses contain very
curious scraps of information concerning
* See The Great Horse or War Horse (p. 26). Third
edition. By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co.,
Ltd. 1899.
20
the running geldings, their maintenance,
and that of the boys retained to ride them.
There is mention of " rewardes " to the
keeper of the running geldings, to the
" children of the stable," and also to the
11 dyatter " of the running geldings. This
last functionary's existence is worth notice,
as it indicates some method of training or
dieting the horses. Nearly seventy years
later in 1599 Gervaise Markham pro-
duced his book, " How to Chuse, Ryde
and Dyet both Hunting and Running
Horses."
In the year 1514, the Marquis of Mantua
sent Henry VIII., from Italy, a present of
some thoroughbred horses ; these in all
probability formed the foundation stock of
our sixteenth-century racehorses. The Privy
Purse Expenses quoted above refer to ' ' the
Barbaranto hors " and "the Barbary hors,"
which are doubtless the same animal. A
hint that it was raced occurs in the mention
of a payment to Polle (Paul, who as previous
entries show, was the keeper of this horse),
" by way of rewarde," i8s. 4d., and on the
same day (March 17, 1532), "paid in re-
warde to the boy that ran the horse,
1 8s. 4 d."
That curious record, The Regulations of
21
the Establishment of Algernon Percy, Fifth
Earl of Northumberland, which was com-
menced in the year 1512, gives us a very
valuable glimpse of the private stud main-
tained by a great noble in Henry VIII.'s
time. The list of the Earl's horses "that
are appointed to be in the charge of the
house yearly, as to say, gentell horseys, pal-
freys, hobys, naggis, cloth-sek hors, male
hors," is as follows :
" First, gentell horsys, to stand in my lordis stable,
six. Item, palfreys of my ladis, to wit, oone for my
lady and two for her gentell- women, and oone for her
chamberer. Four hobys and nags for my lordis oone
('own' in this connection) saddill, viz., oone for my
lord, and oone to stay at home for my lord.
" Item, chariot hors to stand in my lordis stable
yerely.
" Seven great trottynge horsys to draw in the
chariot and a nag for the chariott man to ride eight.
Again, hors for Lord Lerey, his lordship's son and
heir. A gret doble trottynge hors called a curtal,
for his lordship to ride out on out of towns. Another
trottynge gambaldyn hors for his lordship to ride on
when he comes into towns. An amblynge hors
for his lordship to journeye on daily. A proper
ambiynge little nag for his lordship when he goeth
on hunting and hawking. A gret amblynge gelding,
or trottynge gelding, to carry his male."
In regard to these various horses, it may
be added that the "gentell hors " was one of
superior breeding ; the chariott horse and
"gret trotting horsys" were powerful cart
22
horses; the " curtal " was a docked great
horse; the "trottynge gambaldyn " horse
one with high and showy action, and the
41 cloth sek " and " male hors " carried
respectively personal luggage and armour.
EDWARD VI. (1547-1553) AND QUEEN MARY
(1553-1558)-
The brief reign of Edward VI. was pro-
ductive of little legislation that had reference
to horse-breeding. An Act was passed to
sanction the export of mares worth not more
than ten shillings, and another to remove
some ambiguity in Henry VIII.'s law con-
cerning the death penalty, without benefit of
clergy, for horse-stealers,
If nothing was done to promote the
breeding industry during this reign, the
King's advisers took measures to raise
the English standard of horsemanship.
The Duke of Newcastle informs us that he
" engaged Regnatelle to teach, and invited
two Italians who had been his scholars, into
England. The King had an Italian farrier
named Hemnibale, who taught more than
had been known before " The farrier of old
times was the veterinary surgeon as the
barber was the surgeon and the invitations
23
so given show that the Royal advisers were
conscious of English shortcomings. Horse-
manship and the principles of stable manage-
ment perhaps stood at a higher level in Italy
than in any other European country at this
period ; whence the choice of Italians as
riding-masters.
The crime of horse-theft was so rife at
this period that one of the first Acts of
Queen Mary (2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, 7),
passed in 1555, aimed at its suppression.
A place was to be appointed in every fair
for the sale of horses, and there the market
toll-gatherer was to call the seller and buyer
before him and register their names and
addresses, with a description of the horse
changing hands. Under this law the pro-
perty in a stolen horse was not diverted
from the lawful owner unless the horse had
been publicly shown in the market for one
hour ; if it had not been so exposed, the
owner might seize and retain it if he dis-
covered the horse in possession of another
afterwards.
Queen Mary, by the Statute known as
4 Phil. & Mary, considerably extended the
obligation to keep horses which Henry
VIII. had laid upon persons of the upper
and middle class ; but the object of this
24
law was to provide for the defences of
the kingdom, and there is nothing in its
clauses that would indicate desire to promote
horse-breeding ; on the contrary, geldings
are frequently mentioned as alternative to
horses.
ELIZABETH (1558-1603).
Queen Elizabeth, herself an admirable
horsewoman, was as fully imbued with the
necessity for encouraging the breeding of
horses as her father, Henry VIII., and she
lost little time in dealing with the whole sub-
ject after her accession. Energetic measures
were evidently much needed, if we may
accept the statements made by Sir Thomas
Chaloner, in a Latin poem written when he
was ambassador at Madrid, in 1579. He
observes that if Englishmen chose to devote
attention to breeding, with all the advan-
tages their country offered, they could
rear better horses than they could im-
port. England, he averred, had none but
" vile and ordinary horses," which were
suffered to run at large with the mares.
In the first year of her reign Elizabeth
renewed Henry VIII.'s Act forbidding the
export of horses to Scotland. Her next
important step was taken in the fourth year
of her reign ; she issued a Proclamation in
which she reminded her subjects that various
laws had been made and that the penalties
for disobedience would be enforced. The
Proclamation announced the creation of
machinery to see that her father's statute
requiring nobles of prescribed degree to keep
a stallion was being obeyed ; that his laws*
concerning the height of mares in parks and
enclosed lands, and requiring chases, forests
and moors, to be periodically driven, and
worthless mares, fillies and geldings found
thereon destroyed, should be vigorously en-
forced. The law of Philip and Mary which
obliged people to keep horses or geldings
in conformity with the scheme for national
defence, was recapitulated at length, and
obedience within three months enjoined on
penalty of fine.
The Queen evidently considered the laws
she found on the statute book all that were
necessary to ensure attention to the interests
of horse-breeding ; for she refrained for many
years from fresh legislation, contenting her-
self with Royal Proclamations in which she
prescribed limits of time for her subjects to
supply themselves with horses according to
See Ponies Past and Present, pp. 5-6.
26
their legal obligation, and appointed suitable
persons to see that her commands were
carried out. One of these documents, issued
in 1580, announces that the number of
horsemen in the country shown by the
returns is "much less than she looked for."
She made some changes in the existing
laws, notably that passed in the thirty-second
year of Henry VIII.'s reign, concerning the
stature of horses in specified shires. That
law applied among other counties to Cam-
bridgeshire, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lin-
colnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk ; 8 Eliz., c. 8,
passed in 1566, exempted the Isle of Ely
and " other moors, marshes and fens of
Cambridgeshire," and the above-mentioned
counties from operation of the Act because
" the said moors, of their unfirmness, moys-
ture and wateryshnes " could not bear such
big horses without danger of their " mireyng,
drowning and peryshinge."
She also (3 1 Eliz. 1 2) passed another
" Acte to avoyde horse stealinge," the chief
feature of which was to forbid anyone un-
known to the toll-taker to sell a horse in
the market unless the would-be seller could
produce "one sufficient and credible" wit-
ness to vouch for his respectability. The
evil had grown to the proportions of a
national scandal at this time : Holinshecl's
account, published eleven years before this
Act was passed, shows us that no horse in
pasture or stable was safe.
Queen Elizabeth's reign saw important
changes. The application of gunpowder to
hand-firearms destroyed the protective value
of heavy armour, and with heavy armour
gradually went the horse required to carry
it. The disappearance of the Great Horse
as a charger was very slow, however. In
1685 the Duke of Newcastle published his
famous work, The Manner of Feeding, Dress-
ing and Training of Horses for the Great
Saddle, and fitting them for the Service of
the Field in time of War. The book was
probably of little use to posterity, for by
that time the day of the Great Horse as a
charger was very near its close, if not quite
at an end. The introduction of coaches was
another mark of social progress ; and light
horses, Arab, Barb and Spanish, were in
demand to improve our native breeds.
Until 1580, when carriages came into use
in England, saddle horses were used by all
of whatever degree. Though the side saddle
had been introduced in Richard II.'s time,
ladies still rode frequently on a pillion behind
a gentleman or man-servant. Queen Eliza-
28
beth rode on a pillion behind her Master of
the Horse when she went in state to St.
Paul's ; but when hunting or hawking she
seems to have ridden her own palfrey.
Coaches increased so rapidly towards the
end of Elizabeth's reign that a bill was
o
brought into the House of Lords (1601) to
check their use. The measure was lost, the
Lords directing the Attorney-General to
frame a new bill to secure more attention
to horse-breeding instead, but if this was
done the bill never passed into law.
The Queen was an ardent supporter of
the Turf and kept racehorses at Greenwich,
Waltham, St. Albans, Eaton, Hampton
Court, Richmond, Windsor and Charing
Cross. Racing had become a popular
amusement in the earlier years of Eliza-
beth's reign, and her participation in the
sport was probably clue in great measure
to her conviction that it must prove bene-
ficial to the breeding industry. The Roodee
at Chester appears to have been one of the
first public racecourses ; the townspeople
gave a silver bell to be run for. Racing
was well established in Scotland at an
earlier date ; in 1552, during Edward VI. 's
reign, there were races with bells as prizes.
There were races at Salisbury in 1585,.
29
when the Earl of Cumberland won " the
golden bell." In 1599, the Corporation of
Carlisle took the sport under its patronage
and gave silver bells. According to Com-
minius, who wrote about the year 1590,
racing had grown out of fashion at that
period ; the old sport of tilting at the
quintain had been revived and was appar-
ently a more popular spectacle. It is pro-
bable that suspension of public interest in
racing was of a very temporary character,
for Bishop Hall, in one of his Satires, pub-
lished in 1599, refers to the esteem in which
racehorses were then held.
Queen Elizabeth retained her love of
sport and the physical ability to indulge
it to an advanced age. It is said that in
April, 1602, being then in her sixty-ninth
year, she rode ten miles on horseback and
hunted the same day.
Following the example set in Edward
VI.'s reign, Sir Philip Sydney engaged
two Italian experts named Prospero and
Romano, to teach riding ; the Earl of
Leicester, the Queen's Master of the Horse,
also had among his suite an Italian horse-
man, named Claudio Corte, who wrote a
book on the art of riding, which was
published in London, in 1584. Thomas
30
Blundeville, of Newton Hotman, in Norfolk,
ere this date, had published a curious little
black-letter volume, entitled " The Art of
Ryding and Breaking Great Horses" (1566),
which was sold by William Seres, at " The
Sygne of the Hedgehogge," in St. Paul's
Churchyard. Some extracts from this very
interesting little work have been given in
a previous book.*
JAMES I. (1603-1625).
The feature of King James's reign was
the formation of a racecourse at New-
market, which had previously been a
favourite hunting-ground of Royalty, and
continued to be so, at least till James II.'s
time.
Mr. J. P. Horef says that the King
probably resided at an inn known as " The
Griffin," and held court there during his
early visits, and that this inn subsequently
became the King's own property. It is
quite certain that Newmarket as a Turf
centre dates from the time of James I. ; he
spent some days there in the year 1605,
* The Great Horse or War Horse. Third edition. By
Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., Vinton & Co., Ltd., 1899.
I " History of Newmarket."
and appears to have paid very frequent
visits to the place to enjoy the sport he
was anxious to encourage. He kept race-
horses, and in his purchase of the Markham
Arabian* we have evidence that he did
not spare endeavour to procure the best.
It is true that this horse proved a failure
on the Turf; that his indifferent performance
did something to discredit the Arab in the
eyes of Englishmen, and no doubt con-
tributed to check the importation of Eastern
sires for racing ; but his failure does not
affect the fact that his purchase goes for
proof of King James's desire to improve
the breed of racehorses. Many foreign
horses were imported into England during
this reign. The Spanish horse still held
its high reputation; in 1623, the Duke of
* There is some doubt concerning the price paid
by the King for the Markham Arabian. The Duke
of Newcastle, in The New Method of Dressing Horses
(1667) says : " Mr. Markham sold him to King James
for five hundred pounds," and this statement has
been repeated by Sidney and other writers. In the
Times of September i, 1878, however, a correspondent
signing himself " H " drew attention to the follow-
ing entry in the " Records of the Exchequer : "
" Item, December 20, 1616, paid to Master Markham
for an Arabian Horse for His Majesty's own use
^"154. Item, the same paid to a man that brought
the same Arabian Horse and kept him 11.
32
Buckingham, then at Madrid, shipped from
St. Sebastian thirty-five horses, a present
from the Court of Spain to the Prince of
Wales. Whether these were racehorses
or not records omit to tell us.
Under royal encouragement and patronage
the Turf soon took its place as a national
institution. Races were held at Croydon,
Theobalds on Enfield Chase, and Garterly
in Yorkshire, among other places, and of
each of the meetings named the King was
the President. James's most important
studs were stabled at Newmarket, Middle
Park, Eltham, Malmesbury, Nutbury and
Tetbury. During this reign a silver bell
and bowl were among the prizes offered at
the Chester Races ; the races for these were
now run on St. George's Day, and the
trophies then came to be known by the
name of England's patron saint. Horses
were regularly trained and prepared for these
" bell courses ; " the usual weight carried
was 10 stone, and riders went to scale
before starting.
In Scotland it would appear that betting
on races was carried on to an extent that
called for legislative interference ; for in
1621 the Parliament at Edinburgh passed
an Act which required any man who might
33
win over TOO marks in twenty-four hours
" at cards, dice, or wagering on horse races,"
to make over the surplus to the kirk for
the benefit of the poor.
Apart from the fostering care James I.
bestowed upon the Turf, the only pro-
ceedings that require mention are : his
Proclamation issued in 1608, which notified
that the laws against the export of horses
were not being obeyed, and would thence-
forward be enforced; and his repeal in 1624
of Henry VIII.'s law obliging every person
whose wife wore "any French hood or
bonnet of velvet " to keep a stallion. He
also repealed 32 Henry VIII., so far as it
applied to Cornwall (21 Jac. I., c. 28), even
as Queen Elizabeth had relieved some
Eastern and Midland counties from opera-
tion of that law, in view of their unsuitability
to breed heavy horses.
CHARLES I. (1625, Behd. 1649).
Charles I. inherited, to some extent, his
father's taste for the Turf, and combined
therewith a love of the manage, due to
his own accomplished horsemanship. The
interest in racing was now so general, and
the inducement to breed light and swift
3
34
horses for the purpose so great, that other
classes of horse were neglected, to the alarm
of the more far-seeing among the King's
subjects. So seriously was the tendency
to breed only light horses regarded, that
Sir Edward Harwood presented a memorial
to Charles, in which it was pointed out
that there was a great deficiency in the
kingdom of horses of a useful type, and
praying that steps should be taken to en-
courage the breeding of horses for service,
and racing discouraged. Charles would
seem to have been conscious that excessive
attention to breeding light horses was a
national question ; at all events, that
animals of a more generally useful stamp
were scarce ; for in 1641 he granted licenses
for the importation of horses, enjoining the
licensees to import coach horses, mares,
and geldings not under 14 hands,' and
between the ages of three and seven years.
In November, 1627, Charles issued his
Proclamation forbidding the use of snaffles,
except for hunting and hawking ("in times
of Disport "), and requiring all riders to
use bits. His motive was, no doubt, a
desire to encourage the manage, which was
then considered the highest form of horse-
manship. The King and the Queen had
35
separate establishments, and each kept a
large number of horses, including race-
horses. The English system of stable
management had made such advances at
this time that Marshal Bassompierre, the
French Ambassador in London, refers to
it in his memoirs, and recommends that
English methods be followed in France.
The same writer speaks, too, of the supe-
riority of English horses.
The hackney-coach question came up
again in this reign, and Charles issued a
Proclamation dealing with the subject
in January, 1636. He forbade the use of
coaches in London and Westminster unless
they were about to make a journey of at
least three miles ; and he required every
owner of a coach to keep four horses for
the King's service. We may conjecture
that his prohibition of hackney coaches was
not the outcome of a desire to encourage
horsemanship ; for about eighteen months
later he granted to his Master of the Horse,
James, Marquis of Hamilton, power to
license fifty hackney coachmen in London
and the suburbs and convenient places in
other parts of the realm. This license,
granted by Proclamation in July, 1637,
suggests favouritism, as according to a con-
36
temporary publication* there were in 1636
over 6,000 coaches, private and public, in
London and the suburbs : surely more than
were needed, as some 10,000 odd hansoms
and four-wheelers meet London's normal re-
quirements to-day.
Thomas D'Urfey's song,t " Newmarket,"
which is thought to have been written in
the reign of Charles I., shows that New-
market was then, as now, regarded as the
headquarters of the Turf.
THE COMMONWEALTH (1649-1659).
Mr. Christie Whyte, in his History of the
English Turf, says: "Oliver Cromwell,
with his accustomed sagacity, perceiving
the vast benefit derived to the nation by
the improvement of its breed of horses, the
natural consequence of racing, patronised
this peculiarly national amusement, and we
find accordingly that he kept a racing stud."
If Cromwell kept a racing stable it was
before he took the style of "Lord Protector,"
in December, 1653 ; for in February, 1654,
he issued his first Proclamation against
racing, in the shape of a prohibition for six
18 Coach and Sedan.
f Pills to Purge Melancholy*
37
months, which prohibition was repeated in
July. In subsequent years, by the same
means, he made racing, cock-fighting, bear-
baiting, and gambling, illegal.
Owing what he did to his cavalry, it was
only to be expected that he should devote
attention to the matter of remounts. He
imported many Arabs, Barbs, and other
horses suitable for the lightly armoured
troops which had now replaced the knight-
hood of former days ; he also took measures
to encourage the breeding of horses for
hunting and hawking, sports in which he
himself indulged.
At what date stage-coaches began to
supersede the old waggons, which (apart
from saddle and pack horses) were the only
means of journeying in England in Queen
Elizabeth's time, is not known. In the year
1610, a Pomeranian speculator was granted
a royal patent for fifteen years to run
coaches and waggons between Edinburgh
and Leith ; * but not until the end of the
Commonwealth (May, 1659) do we find
definite mention of a stage coach in England
in the diary of a Yorkshire clergyman. f
* " Remarks on the Early Use of Carriages in
England," Archtfologia, 1821.
Ibid.
38
This diary shows that stage coaches and
waggons were then plying between London
and Coventry, London and Aylesbury,
London and Bedford, and on other roads.
It is highly improbable that there existed
any horses of the coaching stamp at this
period ; on the contrary, the wretched
condition of the roads until late in the
eighteenth century,* and the time occupied
on a journey, indicates that animals of the
Great Horse breed were used to drag the
ponderous vehicles through the mud.
CHARLES II. (1660-1685).
After the gloom of the Commonwealth
the nation was ripe for such changes in its
social life as came in with the Restoration.
Newmarket, which had been deserted during
the civil war and the rule of Cromwell,
recovered its former position as the head-
quarters of racing under the patronage of
Charles II. The King entered his horses
in his own name, and came to see them run,
residing at the King's House when he
visited Newmarket. He did away with the
bell as a prize, substituting a bowl or cup of
* " Carriages : Their First Use in England," by
Sir Walter Gilbey ; Live Stock Journal Almanac, 1897.
39
the value of a hundred guineas, upon which
the name and pedigree of the winner was
engraved. He also devoted considerable
attention to improving the English race-
horse ; he sent his Master of Horse abroad
to purchase stallions and brood mares,
principally Arabs, Barbs and Turkish horses.
To these " King's mares," as they were
entitled, our modern racehorse traces his
descent on the dam's side.
Charles II.'s love of racing was not
satisfied by the meetings at Newmarket,
which was not readily accessible from
Windsor, and he instituted races on Datchet
Mead, within sight of the castle, across the
Thames. Here, as at Newmarket, he
encouraged the sport by the presentation of
cups and bowls. Burford Races owed the
prestige they long enjoyed to the encourage-
ment of Charles II. in 1681. Political
considerations required that public attention
should be diverted for the time, if possible,
and to secure this end Charles had all his
best horses brought from Newmarket for the
occasion.
The only piece of legislation that demands
notice is the repeal of the laws against
export, which had been on the Statute Book
since Henry VII.'s reign. The prohibition
40
was cancelled and a duty of 53. per head
imposed on every horse sent over sea.
As proving the wide interest now taken
in racing, the publication in 1680 of a
curious little book called The Compleat
Gamester, may be mentioned. This gives
very full and minute instructions for the
preparation and training of racehorses.
Stage coaches and waggons increased in
number during Charles II.'s reign. There
is among the Harleian Miscellany (vol. viii.)
a tract dated 1673, * n which the writer
adduces several reasons for the suppression
of coaches, " especially those within 40, 50,
or 60 miles off London." His first reason
for objecting to the coach is that it works
harm to the nation " by destroying the breed
of good horses, the strength of the nation,
and making men careless of attaining to
good horsemanship, a thing so useful and
commendable in a gentleman." Charles
apparently did not share this opinion ; at
all events, he gave countenance to the
coach-building industry by founding, in 1677,
the Company of Coach and Coach Harness
Makers.*
* History of the Art of Coach Building. By Geo. A.
Thrupp, London, 1876.
We may pass over the brief reign of
James II. (1685-1688), as it was marked
by nothing of importance bearing on our
subject.
WILLIAM III. (1689-1702).
The first year of this reign saw the im-
portation of the first of the Eastern sires
which contributed to found the modern
breed of racehorses the Byerley Turk.
The Oglethorpe Arabian arrived about the
same time. The Turf was growing in
importance and popularity ; and we find that
a gold bowl was one of the prizes offered
at the Newmarket meeting of 1689. King
William took personal interest in racing, and
kept a stud under the charge of the famous
Tregonwell Frampton, who filled the office
of Keeper of the Running Horses under
Queen Anne, George I. and George II.
The King seems often to have visited New-
market, and he encouraged other meetings
Burford, for example by his presence.
He was keenly alive to the importance
of encouraging horsemanship ; sharing,
perhaps, the view held by many persons
at this period that the general use of stage
coaches and carriages was likely to lead to
42
loss of proficiency in the saddle. He estab-
lished a riding school, placing in charge
Major Foubert, a French officer, whom he
invited to England for the purpose. At the
same time he recognised that travelling on
wheels would increase in popularity, and
took such measures as he might to prevent
the breed of horses from degenerating. His
Act of 1694 (5 an( l 6 Wm. and M., c. 22),
granting licenses to 700 hackney coaches,
four-wheel carriages, now called cabs, in
London and Westminster, contains a clause
forbidding the use of any horse, gelding or
mare under 14 hands in hackney or stage
coach.
The increasing numbers of people who
travelled by stage coach had brought the
highwayman into flourishing existence, and
4 of Wm. and M. c. 8, to encourage the ap-
prehension of these gentry, gave the taker
of a highwayman the horse, arms, and other
property of the thief. In the tenth year of
his reign another Act was passed (10 Wm.
III., c. 12) which made horse stealers liable
to the penalty of branding on the cheek ;
this enactment, however, was repealed in
1706 by Queen Anne (6 Anne, 9), who
substituted burning in the hand for a penalty
which declared the sufferer's character to all
who saw him.
43
William, by legislation, endeavoured to
procure improvements in the public high-
ways, whose condition in many parts had
become dangerous " by reason of the great
and many loads which are weekly drawn
through the same." The records of subse-
quent years, however, showed that the state
of the roads continued to leave much to be
desired.
QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714).
The arrival in England of the Darley
Arabian in 1706 was a fit opening of
the era of prosperity on the Turf which
dawned in Anne's time. The Queen, from
the beginning of her reign, evinced her
desire to promote racing, and added several
royal plates to those already in existence at
the instance, says Berenger,* of her consort,
Prince George of Denmark, who is said to
have been exceedingly fond of the Turf.
A writer in the Sporting Magazine of 1810
gives the following account of the circum-
stances under which the royal plates were
given :
* The History and Art of Horsemanship. By Richard
Berenger, London, 1771.
44
" . . . Gentlemen went on breeding their horses
so fine for the sake of shape and speed only. Those
animals which were only second, third or fourth rates
in speed were considered to be quite useless. This
custom continued until the reign of Queen Anne, when
a public spirited gentleman (observing inconvenience
arising from this exclusiveness) left thirteen plates
or purses to be run for at such places as the Crown
should appoint. Hence they are called the King's
or Queen's Plates or Guineas. They were given
upon the condition that each horse, mare or gelding
should carry twelve stone weight, the best of three
heats over a four-mile course. By this method a
stronger and more useful breed was soon raised ; and
if the horse did not win the guineas, he was yet
strong enough to make a good hunter. By these
crossings as the jockeys term it we have horses
of full blood, three-quarters blood, or half bred,
suitable to carry burthens ; by which means the
English breed of horses is allowed to be the best
and is greatly esteemed by foreigners."
Whether the money for the royal plates
was provided, as Berenger states, from the
Queen's own purse, at the instance of her
consort, or whether it came from the estate
of the public spirited gentleman referred to
by the contributor to the Sporting Magazine,
the fact remains that these plates were
established in Anne's reign, and that they
did something to encourage the production
of a better stamp of horse. An animal able
to carry twelve stone three four-mile heats
must be one of substance, and not merely
a racing machine.
45
Much attention would seem to have been
given to the mounting of our cavalry and
the general efficiency of that arm by Anne's
generals. Col. Geo. Denison, in his History
of Cavalry (London, 1877), says that the
battle of Blenheim in 1704 was almost
altogether decided by the judicious use of
cavalry, while at Ramillies in 1706, and
Malplaquet, the cavalry played a very im-
portant part in the operations.
In the later years of her reign the Queen's
interest in racing became still more apparent ;
she gave her first Royal gold cup, value
60 guineas, in 1710; and yet more plates:
further, she ran horses in her own name at
York and elsewhere.
There was little change on the ''Road"
during Anne's time ; springs of steel had
replaced the leather straps used in England
until about 1700, but the coaches, improved
in minor details, were still ponderous and
required powerful teams to draw them. The
Queen's own state coach was drawn by six
mares of the Great Horse, or as it should
be called in connection with the period
under survey, the Shire Horse breed. Oxen
were used in the slow stage waggons, as
appears from the laws passed by William
III. and Anne. The law of the latter
4 6
sovereign (6 Anne, cap. 56) enacted that
not more than six horses or oxen might
be harnessed to any vehicle plying on the
public roads except to drag them up hills ;
and this latter indulgence was withdrawn
three years later (1710), leaving the team
of six to negotiate hills as they might.
Hackney coachmen evidently displayed a
tendency to evade their legal obligations
in the matter of size in their horses ; for in
1710 another Act (9 Anne, c. 16) was passed
to the same effect as a former law, requiring
hackney-coach horses to be not less than
14 hands in height.
GEORGE I. (1714-1727).
During the first seventy years of the
eighteenth century Eastern horses were
imported in large numbers ; there is in
existence a list of 200 stallions which were
sent to this country, but that number does
not represent a tithe of the whole. The
event of George I.'s reign, from a Turf
point of view, was, of course, the arrival,
in 1724, of the Godolphin Arabian, the
sire to which our racers of to-day owe so
much. George I. appears to have taken
little personal interest in the Turf, though
47
at least one visit paid by him to Newmarket,
in October 1717, is recorded; nor does the
parliamentary history of his brief reign show
that much attention was given to the work
of improving our horses.
The science of travel had gone back
rather than forward, for in 1715 the post
from London to Edinburgh took six days,
whereas in 1635 it took three. At this time,
and until 1784, the mails were carried by
boys on horseback ; and between the
badness of the roads, the untrustworthiness
of the boys, and the wretched quality of
the horses supplied them, the postal service
was both slow and uncertain. The Post
Office still held the monopoly (first granted
in 1603) f furnishing post-horses at a rate
of threepence a mile, and its control over
its subordinates was of the slightest.
The only Act of George I.'s reign re-
lating to horses was that of 1714 (i
George I., c. n), which forbade waggoners,
carriers, and others, from drawing any
vehicle "with more than four horses in
length."
The omission of reference to oxen in this
connection may indicate that for draught
purposes on the highways they were going
out of use.
4 8
GEORGE II. (1727-1760).
An important step was taken in regard
to the Turf by George II. in 1740; some
of its provisions will be found in Ponies Past
and Present (pp. 8 and 9), but it contained
other clauses of a far-reaching character.
This law (13 Geo. II., c. 19) provided that
every horse entered for a race must be
bond fide the property of the person entering
it, and that one person might enter only
one horse for a race on pain of forfeiture.
The weights to be carried were prescribed:
A 5 -year-old was to carry 10 stone.
A 6-year-old ,, ,, 1 1 stone.
A 7 -year-old ,, ,, 12 stone.
Any horse carrying less was to be forfeited
and his owner fined ^200. Every race
was to be finished on the day it began,
that is to say, all heats were to be run off
in one day. The Act went even further.
It declared that matches might be run for
a stake of under ^50, only at Newmarket
and Black Hambleton in Yorkshire, under
a penalty of ^200 for disobedience. Prizes
elsewhere were to be of an intrinsic value
of at least ^50, and entrance money was
. to go to the second horse.
So drastic a measure as this could not
49
long be upheld in a free and sport-loving
country ; and it is without surprise we find
the Government, five years later, with-
drawing from a position which must have
made it excessively unpopular. The next
law (18 Geo. II., c. 34, sec. xi.) opens with
the announcement that, whereas the thirteen
Royal Plates of 100 guineas value each,
annually run for, as also the high prices
that are continually given for horses of
strength and size are sufficient to encourage
breeders to raise their cattle (sic) to the
utmost size and strength possible, "There-
fore it shall be lawful to run any match for
a stake of not less than ^50 value at any
weights whatsoever and at any place or
places whatsoever."
The effect of this " climbing down "
measure was naturally to introduce lighter
weights. Thus in 1754, to take an example
that presents itself, Mr. Fenwick's Match'em
won the Ladies' Plate of 126 guineas at
York carrying nine stone, as a five-year-
old ; six-year-olds carrying 10 stone, four-
mile heats; and in 1755 Match'em beat
Trajan at Newmarket carrying 8 stone 7 Ibs.
Perhaps it is not too much to say that the
Act of 1745 was the first step towards
modern light-weight racing. It must be
4
50
added that the scale of weights prescribed
for the Royal Plates was as follows :
4-year-olds carried 10 stone 4 Ib.
5-year-olds ,, n ,, 6 ,,
6-and a^ed 12
o
Races decided in 4-mile heats.
The King himself lent a somewhat per-
functory support to the Turf, keeping at
Hampton Court a grey Arab stallion, whose
services were available for mares at a stated
fee.
A most important event in the history of
the Turf marks George II.'s reign. The
Jockey Club was founded, and its existence
first received public recognition in Mr. John
Pond's Sporting Kalendar, published at the
end of 1751 or the beginning of 1752. It
is probable, however, that the club was
actually in existence in the year 1750; but
it was started without any attempt at pub-
licity, and, so far as can be ascertained,
with no idea whatever of acquiring the
despotic power which eventually came into
its hands. As Mr. Robert Black, in The
Jockey Club and its Founders, remarks :
" What more natural than that the noblemen and
gentlemen who frequented Newmarket, where ruffians
and blacklegs were wont to congregate, should con-
ceive the notion of forming themselves into a body
apart, so that they might have at Newmarket as
well as in London and elsewhere a place of their
own, to which not every blackguard who could pay
a certain sum of money would have as much right as
they to claim entrance."
The conjecture is a most plausible one ;
but it was not long before the Club showed
that it intended to support racing in practical
fashion, for at the Newmarket meeting in
May, 1753, two Jockey Club Plates were
given for horses belonging to members of
the Club.
It is stated that, in the year 1752, sixty
throughbred stallions, of which only eight
were reputed imported Arabs, were standing
for service in various parts of England ;
fees, as may be supposed, were low. A
horse named Oronooka headed the list at a
fee of 20 guineas ; another, Bolton Starling,
covered at 8J guineas ; but the usual charge
was one, two or three guineas. Flying
Childers in the earlier part of the century
stood at 50 guineas, then at 100 guineas,
and one season at 200 guineas.
There is little to note concerning the
" Road " or other spheres of equine work
during this reign. The roads were as bad as
ever, and travel was so slow that in 1740
Metcalf, the blind road-maker, walked the
200 miles from London to H arrogate more
52
quickly than Colonel Liddell could cover the
distance in his coach with post-horses. The
barbarous methods of training cavalry recruits
at this period was attracting notice, as we
learn from a little work on Military Equita-
tion, by Henry Earl of Pembroke, which was
published in 1761. The writer refers to the
" wretched system of horsemanship at present
prevailing in the army," and refers to the
common method of putting a man on a rough
trotting horse, to which he is obliged to stick
with all his might of arms and legs." Most
of the officers, he says, when on horseback
are a disgrace to themselves and the animals
they ride ; and he proceeds to urge the adop-
tion of methods based on practical common
sense.
GEORGE III. (1760-1820.)
The laws concerning horses made by the
Parliaments of George III. have bearing on
the subject of breeding and improvement,
inasmuch as they deal with the horse as
taxable property. The turf, road, and hunt-
ing history of the reign is important, the first
particularly so, though the King himself took
little personal interest in racing. " Give and
Take" plates for horses from 12 to 15 hands
were in fashion during the latter part of the
53
last century, George II. s Act directed against
small racehorses notwithstanding. A 12-
hand pony carried 5 stone, and the scale of
weight for inches prescribed 14 oz. for each
additional quarter of an inch ; whereby 1 3
hands carried 7 stone, 14 hands 9 stone, 15
hands i r stone. Hunter races were run
at Ascot in 1722, and after that date the
Calendar of 1762, however, is the first of
the series that contains the form of u Quali-
fication for a Hunter."
The Royal Plates were still among the
most important events of the Turf; in 1760
there were 18 of these in England and Scot-
land, and 6 in Ireland, 5 of the latter in
Kildare. The " King's Plate Articles,"
which appear in every annual issue of the
Racing Calendars for very many years, were
retained in their original form. " Six-year-
olds shall carry 12 stone, 14 Ibs. to the stone ;
three heats " ; but in the Calendar of 1773 a
footnote occurs, " By a late order altered to
one heat." Nevertheless, very cursory inspec-
tion of the books shows that much latitude
was allowed in weights, distances, and num-
bers of heats both before 1773 an d after.
In 1799 another footnote appears under the
" King's Plate Articles," to effect that the
conditions " By a late order are altered to
54
one heat and different weights are appointed."
In spite of this order races for the plates were
on occasion still run in two or three heats,
apparently by permission of the Master of
the Horse. We are not informed what
weight the new scale required, but the pages
of the Calendar show they were reduced ;
authoritative information on the point appears
with the Articles at a later date. In 1807 tne
number of Royal Plates had been increased
to 23 in Great Britain.
On the 4th May, 1780, the first Derby was
run ; the value of the stake was 50 guineas,
and the race, open to three-year-old colts at
8 stone, and fillies at 7 stone 1 1 Ibs., distance
one mile, was won by Diomed. In 1801,
1803, 1807, an d 1862, the weights for the
Derby were altered, always increasing by a
few pounds, till they reached their present
level. By 1793, the Derby had grown into
great popularity. The establishment of the
St. Leger, in 1776, and the Oaks in 1779,
are events which also aid to make King
George III.'s reign memorable. Races for
Arab produce occur on the Newmarket
" cards " about the time our classic races were
founded ; sweepstakes of 100 guineas being
run for in 1775, J 776, and 1/77. Races for
Arabs, however, have never been continued
for many years in succession.
00
Q QQ
UJ
O
Q
55
The accompanying portrait of Grey Diomed,
a son of Diomed, the winner of the first
Derby, in 1780, gives a good idea of the
racehorse of this period. Grey Diomed was
foaled in 1/85, and won many important
races between the years 1788 and 1792.
He was bred at Great Barton, Bury St.
Edmunds, by Sir Charles Bunbury.
It was in 1780 that Mr. William Childe,
of Kinlet, " Flying Childe," introduced the
modern method of riding fast to hounds.
Prior to Mr. Childe's time, men rode to
hounds in a fashion we should consider slow
and over-cautious, timber being taken at a
stand; but once the superior excitement of
fast riding across country was realised, the
old, slow method soon disappeared.
Though the Norfolk Hackney achieved
its fame through Blaze (foaled 1733), who
begat the original Shales, foaled in 1755,
and the foundations of this invaluable breed
were thus laid in George II.'s time, we
must have regard to the period during which
the breed achieved its celebrity both at home
and abroad, and that period is the long reign
of George III.
The old system of conveying mails on
horseback, with its innumerable faults and
drawbacks, came to an end in George I II.'s
56
time, a mail coach making its first trip in
August, 1784, when the journey from Bristol
to London, about 119 miles, was performed
in 1 7 hours, or at a rate of 7 miles per hour.
The era of macadamised roads, which was
followed by the short " golden age " of fast
coaching, can hardly be said to belong to
this reign, Mr. Macadam's system of road-
making having been generally adopted only
in 1819.
The founding of the Royal Veterinary
College at Camden Town in 1791 was by
no means the least important event of this
reign ; it is not too much to say that it
marked an epoch in the history of the Horse ;
for the establishment of this institution made
an end of the quackery, often exceedingly
cruel, which for centuries had passed for
medical treatment of animals. Until the end
of the eighteenth century English veterinary
practitioners had been content to follow in
the footsteps of such teachers as Gervaise
Markham, who was the great authority on
equine diseases two hundred years before :
and the principles and practice of Gervaise
Markham were hardly free from the taint
of witchcraft and sorcery. Some of the more
drastic and obviously useless remedies had
been discredited and abandoned, but at the
57
period of which we write, English veter-
inarians appear to have been following their
own way regardless of the more enlightened
methods which were beginning to gain accep-
tance among the advanced practitioners of
France. For to the French is due the credit
of laying the first foundations on which
scientific veterinary surgery was built.
The helplessness of the old school is
proved by the ravages of epizootics. The
loss of horses and other live stock when
contagious disease gained footing was enor-
mous, such diseases being entirely beyond
the understanding of veterinarians. The
last half of the eighteenth century saw
the establishment of veterinary colleges in
Europe. Lyons led the way in 1761 ; the
next to be founded was that of Alfort near
Paris in 1765 ; the next, Copenhagen, in
1773 ; Vienna, 1775 ; Berlin. 1790, and
London, as already mentioned, in 1791.
Study of animal diseases was stimulated
by the invasion of deadly plagues, which
wrought such havoc that stock-raising in
some countries threatened to disappear as an
industry. Knowledge of these plagues and
efficient remedies had become essential to
the existence of horse and cattle breeding,
and the collection of facts and correct views
concerning such diseases was the greatest
task of the veterinary colleges : the progress
made was necessarily slow ; but the founda-
tion of veterinary surgery as a science dates
from the establishment of the colleges named.
For many years the new school of veteri-
narians were groping in the dark ; but if they
made no striking advance they did valuable
work in collecting facts and correct views
concerning animal diseases, which were of
great value to a later generation.
The Royal Veterinary College was founded
by a Frenchman named Charles Vial de
St. Bel, or Sainbel. Sainbel was born at
Lyons in 1753. His talents developed early
in life, and after a brief but brilliantly suc-
cessful career in France he came over to
England in 1788. He published proposals
for founding a Veterinary School in this
country, but his suggestions were not favour-
ably received, and he returned home. Per-
haps the fact that he had married an
Englishwoman during his short residence on
this side of the Channel influenced Sainbel
in his choice of refuge when the Revolution
threatened ; but however that may be, it
was to London that he repaired when
political unrest in Paris bade him seek a new
sphere of activity.
59
By a stroke of good fortune Mr. Dennis
O'Kelly selected the young French veteri-
nary surgeon to dissect the carcase of the
great race-horse Eclipse in February, 1789.
Sainbel did the work, and wrote an " Essay
on the Geometrical Proportions of Eclipse,"
which attracted immediate notice and esta-
blished his reputation as a veterinary
anatomist.
He still cherished his scheme for founding
a Veterinary School, and his abilities now
being recognised, it was taken up by the
Odiham Agricultural Society. In 1791
Sainbel had the satisfaction of seeing the
school established, in the shape of a farriery
with stabling for fifty horses. He did not
live to see the success that was destined to
attend his enterprise, as he died in 1793 in
his fortieth year. During the two years of
his work as principal, however, he had laid
down the lines on which scientific veterinary
practice should be conducted ; in the words
of his biographer, " Sainbel may justly be
looked upon as the founder of scientific
veterinary practice in England" {Dictionary
of National Biography}.
GEORGE IV. (1820-1830).
In George IV. the Turf had, perhaps, the
6o
most ardent supporter it ever boasted among
our sovereigns, though the unfortunate
Escape affair caused him to renounce the
sport altogether for many years (1791-1810):
The King was passionately fond of horses,
and never wearied of trying hacks and
hunters ; he got together a splendid breeding
stud at Hampton Court. In the last year of
his reign he increased the number of Royal
Plates to 43, of which 27 were run for in
England, Scotland and Wales, and 16
in Ireland : he was also instrumental in
bringing about vast improvements in the
royal buckhounds. The legislative measures
of George IV. were a bill to entirely relieve
agricultural horses from taxation, the duties
thereon having been reduced by George III.
in the last year of his reign ; and a bill to
relieve horses let for travelling of the duties
that had been imposed upon them by his
father.
WILLIAM IV. (1830-1837).
William IV. had no great love of racing,
and his personal attitude towards the sport
is well reflected in his oft-quoted order to
"start the whole fleet" for the Goodwood
Cup of 1830. He was, however, fully alive
to the national importance of racing, and did
6i
something to encourage it, presenting the
Jockey Club in 1832 with one of the hoofs
of Eclipse set in gold, which, with ^200
given by himself, was to be run for annually
by horses the property of members. " The
Eclipse Foot "appears to have brought fields
for only four years, and then remained an
ornament of the Jockey Club rooms at New-
market.
In the same year, 1832, a new schedule
of weights was appended to the Articles for
the King's Plates ; this shows that the
weights to be carried varied somewhat
according to the places where the races were
run. No scale was prescribed for New-
market, the conditions being left for settle-
ment by the Jockey Club. In 1837, the last
year of William's reign, the number of Royal
Plates had again increased and stood at 48,
34 in England and Scotland, 14 in Ireland.
The king continued the breeding stud at
Hampton Court which his brother had be-
queathed to him ; if his affection for the Turf
was slight, he deserves the greater credit for
having maintained it.
The reign of William IV. saw the coach-
ing age at its best, for rapid travel by road
was raised to a science only a few years
before its extinction by the introduction of
62
railways. Good roads, good horses and im-
proved coaches in combination rendered it
possible to cover long distances at a uni-
formly high speed, from 10 to icj miles per
hour being the rate at which the mails ran
between London and Exeter, London and
York, and other important centres.
HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA.
Ace. JUNE 20, 1837.
The sale of the Hampton Court Stud is
the first noteworthy event of Her Majesty's
reign. The step taken by the Queen's
advisers, with Lord Melbourne, the Prime
Minister, at their head, was deeply regretted
by all interested in horse breeding, as one
seeming to imply that the national sport
would no longer receive the patronage of the
Throne. A respectful but strong memorial
against the sale was presented by the Jockey
Club, but without avail, and on October 25,
1837, Messrs. Tattersall disposed of the stud,
before a crowded audience, which included
buyers from France, Germany, Russia, and
other foreign countries. The catalogue in-
cluded 43 brood mares, which brought 9,568
guineas; 13 colt foals, 1,471 guineas; 18
filly foals, 1,109 guineas; and 5 stallions,
63
including The Colonel and Actseon and two
o
imported Arabs, 3,556 guineas.
Actuated by patriotic motives and un-
willing that so fine a horse should go abroad,
Mr. Richard Tattersall bought The Colonel
for i, 600 guineas ; a price which was then
considered a very large one. The total
realised by sale of the stud, including a
couple of geldings, was 15,692 guineas.
Thirteen years later, in 1850, the clear-
sightedness of H.R.H. the Prince Consort,
saw that the dispersal had been a mistake,
and that year saw the foundation of a new
stud which flourished until 1894, when it was
sent to the hammer. Regarding this second
dispersal, it was urged that the stud did not
pay its expenses ; and although it produced
The Earl, Springfield and La Fleche, good
judges, including the late General Peel, were
of opinion that the ground, on which for so
many years Thoroughbreds had been reared,
was tainted and therefore needed rest.
In 1840 the fifth Duke of Richmond
brought in a bill to repeal those clauses of
13 George II. which still remained on the
Statute Book limiting the value of stakes,
and this measure passed into law, not with-
out opposition (3 and 4 Vic. 5). Some
interesting evidence bearing on our subject
6 4
was given before the Select Committee on
Gaming which was appointed in 1844. Mr.
John Day gave it as his opinion that the
breed of horses had much improved during
the twenty to twenty-five years preceding,
the improvement being apparent in riding
and draught horses. Mr. Richard Tattersall
shared Mr. Day's opinion as regarded im-
provement, but thought fewer horses were
bred. About 1836 or 1837 farmers were in
such a state that they could not, or did
not think it worth while to breed ; by
consequence the industry had fallen off
and there was a scarcity. Railways, in
Mr. Tattersall's opinion, had affected the
market. " The middling sort does not sell
in consequence of railways ; horses that
used to fetch ^40 now bring \j or ^18."
Riding horses sold better than the middling-
class, but hunters did not fetch half the price
they did in former years.
The result of this investigation, as far as
the horse question is concerned, was briefly
summarised in the following passage of the
Third Report of the Lords' Committee.
They thought it desirable that this amuse-
ment should be upheld, " because, without
the stimulus which racing affords, it would
be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain
65
that purity of blood and standard of excel-
lence which have rendered the breed of Eng-
lish horses superior to that of any other
country in the world."
The last statement was borne out by Mr.
Tattersall's evidence. He said that he had
sent horses to every part of the world except
China. America and the countries of Europe
have been purchasing the best stallions and
mares money could buy in England during
the last hundred years and more.
In 1845 the number of Queen's Plates
stood at 51 ; 36 in Great Britain and 15 in
Ireland. In 1861 the scale of weights was
remodelled and made applicable to all the
Plates wherever run ; and in the same year
it was enacted that " none of Her Majesty's
Plates shall be run in heats."
Some few abortive attempts to control
racing by law have been made since Her
Majesty's accession. In 1860 Lord Redes-
dale introduced into the House of Lords a
bill to stop light-weight racing by fixing the
minimum weight at 7 stone. This measure
was withdrawn, Lord Derby and Lord Gran-
ville, also a member of the Jockey Club and
leader of the Liberal Party in the House of
Lords, promising on behalf of the Jockey
Club that that body was prepared to deal
5
66
with the matter ; but nothing was done
in the direction indicated.
In May, 1870, Mr. Thomas Hughes, the
member for Frome, brought in a bill to
amend the laws relating to racing. This
bill proposed to make it unlawful to race
any horse or mare under three years old,
and to make the Queen's Plates open only
to horses four years old and upwards.
Mr. Hughes, in introducing his measure,
said that between 1843 an d 1868 the
number of two-year-olds running had in-
creased fourfold, while the number of races
of a mile and upwards had decreased, and
urged that the system which had grown
up tended to cause deterioration in the
breed of horses. As was well known at
the time, Mr. Hughes was indebted for his
facts and figures to Sir Joseph Hawley.
This bill was read a first time by 132
votes to 44, but was withdrawn in the
following July.
Great and radical changes had come over
the Turf during the twenty-five years men-
tioned by Mr. Hughes, but they were only
incidental to the general process of Turf
development which has been going on since
the advent of the railway.
In 1836 the travelling van was first
6 7
used for conveying a horse from training
quarters to the race course. Lord George
Bentinck, who managed Lord Lichfield's
racing stable, resolved at the last moment
to run Elis in the St. Leger, and astonished
the betting fraternity by producing him at
Doncaster in time for the race ; to do this
he had borrowed a van which had been
constructed to carry fat cattle to Smithfield
Show. The fact that Elis won the St. Leger
to which he had been brought in this, then
novel, fashion no doubt did something to
stimulate the practice of transporting race
horses thus ; but the van was gradually
superseded by the horse-box, which was
first employed for the purpose about 1840.
Railways, as they spread over the country,
did much to increase the number of meet-
ings held and to increase the numbers of
entries. We find that in the period between
1827 and 1837 the number of horses run-
ning increased from 1,166 in the former
year to 1 2 1 3 in the latter ; while during the
period between 1860, when railroads had
become numerous, and 1870, the number of
horses running rose from 1,717 in the former
year to 2,569 in the latter.
The development of the daily sporting
press and the spread of the telegraph system
68
have also contributed to the changes on the
Turf. By quickening the interest of the
people in racing, these factors have helped
to increase the attendance on race courses,
and at " gate money meetings," to enhance
the funds at the disposal of promoters,
whereby the latter are able to offer in prize
money sums beyond the conception of our
grandfathers in the early years of the
century.
With the increase in the number of meet-
ings, of horses running and the value of
prizes, other changes have gradually crept
in. The Challenge Whip remains the
solitary^ survival of the old four-mile races.
The Whip, it may be well to remind the
reader, was originally the property of Thomas
Lennard, Lord Dacre, whose arms are en-
graved upon it. Lord Dacre was created
Earl of Sussex in 1674 by Charles II. : he
was devoted to the Turf, and it is believed
that he left his Whip (a short, heavy, old-
fashioned jockey-whip with hair from the
tail of Eclipse interwoven into the ring on
the handle) as a trophy to be run for at
Newmarket. He died in 1715, but the first
race for the Whip does not appear to have
been run till 1756, when Mr. Fenwick's
Match'em won from Mr. Bowies' Trajan.
6 9
Gimcrack, Mambrino, Shark, Pot-8-os, Dun-
Cannon, Thormanby, and many other famous
horses have run for the Whip. The course
is the Beacon, 4 miles i furlong 177 yards,
and the weight to be carried is 10 stone.
The tendency for years has been in favour
of short races at the expense of long distance
events. At the Newmarket Craven meeting
of 1820 there was one race of about three
miles, five races of two miles or over, twenty
of about one mile and two of under one
mile. At the Newmarket Craven meeting
of 1900 there were three races of about
one mile and a half, six of about one mile,
and eleven of five or six furlongs. The
necessity for breeding race horses that could
carry from ten to twelve stone twice or
thrice in an afternoon over a four-mile
course has disappeared altogether. In his
place we have the animal which can carry
seven stone over six or seven .furlongs at a
pace that would probably have left Eclipse
hopelessly behind, but which is useless for
any purpose off the race-course.
The highly artificial existence to which
our race horses are now subjected, jealously
protected from change of temperature, and
" forced " in preparation to take part in two-
year-old races, has done much to impair
70
fitness to beget horses that will stand work
in the hunting field or on the road. This
is a result of the changes which have come
over the English Turf during the century.
We must, however, retrace our steps and
glance at the endeavours to improve our
horses which have been made within the
last thirty years.
The year 1873 saw the appointment of
the Select Committee generally known as
Lord Rosebery's Committee " to Enquire
into the Condition of the Country with
regard to Horses, and its Capabilities of
Supplying any Present or Future Demands
for them." This committee did not con-
sider the question of Racing ; their labours
during their sixteen sittings were restricted
to eliciting facts from the witnesses con-
cerning the breeding and supply of horses
of the generally useful stamp ; and much
valuable evidence was given before them.
To summarise them briefly, the main points
of their Report were as follows :
The Committee considered that so far
as the Army was concerned it seemed to
be admitted that the mounted branches
were never better horsed than they were
now : Mr. H. R. Phillips had given evidence
that Irish mares were chiefly used in the
Army. They were not prepared to recom-
mend the formation of Government breeding
studs on the Continental plan, deeming it
better that the military authorities should
continue to buy as private customers. They
did not recommend any check on the use
of unsound stallions, though admitting this
to be a great evil ; to restrain owners of
unsound sires from offering their services
for hire would, they thought, be construed
as interference with individual liberty ; but,
if practicable, they would have prizes given
at agricultural shows to sound stallions which
covered mares at a low fee.
They also recommended (and this was the
only one of their recommendations adopted
by the House of Commons) the abolition of
taxes on horses which operated as a deterrent
to farmers who would otherwise pay more
attention to breeding. The evidence given
before them showed that there appeared to
be no scarcity of Thoroughbreds : high-
class hunters had increased in price and
more in proportion than other horses, but
those who could afford to pay could
generally find what they required. There
was a general decrease in the number of
horses in England ; the evidence pointed
to a great scarcity of agricultural horses,
72
and while the Cleveland Bay and old-
fashioned Hackney or Roadster had become
extremely rare, we had been obliged of late
years to look abroad for supplies of harness
horses.
The causes of deficiency in these breeds
were (i) the export of mares ; (2) the in-
creased profits accruing to sheep and cattle
rearing, and (3) the increased demand for
horses, consequent on increased population
and augmented wealth, which produced a
relative scarcity. The Committee recorded
great improvements during the few years
preceding in Cornwall and Devon, where
formerly few horses had been bred.
The value of the work performed by
this Committee was much qualified by the
disinclination of its members to hear any
evidence which did not bear directly upon
Thoroughbreds and the production of saddle
horses. Perusal of the mass of evidence
given by numerous witnesses shows that
the Committee would hear little or nothing
in relation to the condition of Harness
Horse breeding, apparently holding that
very important department of the industry
as without the scope of their inquiry. It
is difficult to understand why this attitude
was adopted, but the published minutes
73
stand to prove that any witness who ven-
tured to comment upon harness horses and
the advisability of stimulating their pro-
duction, was not encouraged to give in-
formation.
What little evidence was accepted in
regard to harness horses showed the exis-
tence of a growing demand for the best
Roadster stock in continental countries.
French, Italian, German and Austrian
breeders were fully alive to the value of
Hackney blood, and their agents coming
every year to England for the purpose
since about 1840 had purchased all the
good stallions they could find to foster and
promote the breeding of horses eminently
suitable for carriage artillery and transport
work.
Mr. J. East, of the firm of Phillips and
East, said that the French agents "buy the
very best mares they can get ; you cannot
get them to buy a bad mare." The late
Mr. H. R. Phillips stated in course of his
evidence that his firm sent "from thirty to
forty of these roadster stallions every year
to France and Italy and different countries ;
they sent as many as they could procure."
When asked how the number of Hackney
stallions exported at that date compared with
74
the number exported ten or fifteen years
previously (say about the year 1858), Mr.
Phillips replied that the foreigners had
always taken as many as they could get.
Horses of roadster stamp are not less
necessary to the efficiency of the British
army than to Continental armies ; but while
the Committee displayed the greatest care
and assiduity in their investigations con-
cerning the causes of dearth in saddle
horses, they passed over the not less impor-
tant question of harness horse supply, as
though holding that a matter of no account.
It is to be regretted that the Committee
did not ask questions as to the enormous
number of mares purchased for France,
Germany, Russia and Austria, and also
enquire concerning the use to which the
mares are put in those countries. The
answers would have been instructive, for it
is now well known that fifteen out of every
twenty of them were medium and heavy
weight hunter mares many of them stale
for riding to hounds, but in every other
respect suitable for breeding. These foreign
buyers had no prejudices : they bought the
mares with the view of breeding stock of
the type most suitable for the requirements
of their respective countries : the mares had
75
plenty of thoroughbred blood in their veins,
and it remained for breeders to select
stallions of the right stamp. Hence the
demand from all continental countries for
Hackney sires which began sixty years
ago and which has continued ever since.
How urgent was the necessity for atten-
tion to this department of horse-breeding
was very fully demonstrated by Earl Cath-
cart in a paper l which was published in the
Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society
of England about ten years afterwards.
Lord Cathcart adopted the practical method
of obtaining from friends who had long
experience, their opinions on the condition of
the breeding of horses other than thorough-
breds ; and the communications sent by these
gentlemen make up the bulk of the paper
referred to.
There was but one opinion among Lord
Cathcart's correspondents who, it must be
noted, wrote quite independently of one
another. To briefly summarise their state-
ments, they deplored the disappearance of
the old-fashioned thoroughbred with bone
1 " Half Bred Horses for Field and Road ; Their
Breeding and Management," Journal of the R. A. S. E.
vol. xix., part i, No. xxxvii.
and stamina, and the disappearance of the
Cleveland breed and the Hackney of the
'thirties. Many influences had been at work
to bring about the regrettable change in the
stock of the country.
The spread of railways had put an end to
the demand for coach horses and roadsters,
and the men who used to ride everywhere
in the old days had given up their hardy and
enduring saddle horses for the more luxurious
seat in the train. At the same time buyers
from France, Germany, and other Con-
tinental countries, having discovered the
willingness of English breeders to part
with their breeding stock if sufficiently
tempted, purchased every good mare money
could command.
Again, the craze for height had done
something to impair the merits of what
roadsters the foreigners left us. The Cleve-
lands were ruined by crossing with leggy
inferior thoroughbreds, whose sole recom-
mendation consisted in their height at the
shoulder and which were wanting in every
useful quality.
The value of the half-bred hunter was
also insisted on by Lord Cathcart's corres-
pondents all of them men who had right
to form an opinion. Mr. Sax Maynard,.
77
who for fifteen years was Master of the
North Durham Hounds, laid stress on the
"wear and tear" qualities of the hunter
got by the old stamp of thoroughbred out
of the Cleveland mare, and conversely of
hunters got by Cleveland sires out of
thoroughbred mares. The superior speed
of the thoroughbred was admitted ; but the
greater endurance of the half-bred hunter
in hilly country was a quality which gave
him a value which did not attach to the
pure thoroughbred.
Nothing more convincing could have been
compiled than this essay from several horse-
breeding correspondents. It shows clearly
how very great is the change which has
come over the principal breeding grounds of
England during the present reign.
In regard to the disappearance of horses
of the useful stamp for harness and saddle
it is not necessary to require evidence for
the reasons. When we remember how
enormous was the network of coach route
that spread all over the kingdom in pre-
railway days ; and consider how vast were
the studs necessary to horse the mail and
passenger coaches, to say nothing of the
post-chaises preferred by people of means ;
and when we think that the road-coach
78
survives now only in a few out-of-the-way
corners of the country, and is regarded as
an interesting relic of by-gone days where
it does exist, we can form perhaps a vague
idea of the extent of the change. About
the year 1830 upwards of 1,040 coaches
were running daily out of London alone.
We need not, thanks to " Nimrod " and
other chroniclers of the coaching age, remain
content with a vague idea of the number of
horses then in use on the roads. It is easy
to take a single route and reckon up the
stud required to work a coach running
thereon. The usual " stage" for a team
was from eight to ten miles, and making
due provision for rests, accidents, &c., the
proprietors estimated the needs of a coach
at one horse per mile "one way." There-
fore a coach running from London to York,
200 miles, and back, required about 200
horses ; from London to Edinburgh, 400
miles, and back, about 400 horses ; from
London to Exeter, 175 miles, and back,
about 175 horses.
On roads where the passenger traffic was
heavy, coaches were numerous : as many
as twenty-five ran daily in the summer
during the 'thirties from London to Brighton.
The distance by road is about sixty miles,
79
whence it would seem that no fewer than
1,500 horses were used by the coach pro-
prietors on that route alone ; probably more,
as competition was keen and the speed
maintained was hard upon horseflesh.
The average working life of a horse in
a fast road coach was about four years,
according to Nimrod. Hence the coach
proprietor found it necessary to renew one
fourth of his stud at a cost of from ^"25 to
^45 per head every year. Mr. Chaplin,
who owned five "yards" in London in the
'thirties, had upwards of 1,300 horses at
work in various coaches on various roads,
and would therefore have been obliged to
purchase about i 1,37 5 worth of horses
every year.
When the railway banished the coach
from the highroad, which it did with con-
siderable rapidity, these great coaching
studs were necessarily given up, and a
market for horses of the most useful stamp
disappeared. An eminent proprietor gave
the qualities required in a road coach-horse
for fast work as follows : " First requisite,
action ; second, sound legs and feet, with
power and breeding equal to the nature
and length of the ground he will work
upon ; third, good wind, without which the
8o
first and second qualifications will not avail
in very fast work for any length of time.
The hunter and racer are good or bad,
chiefly in proportion to their powers of
respiration ^ and such is the case with the
road-coach horse."
The practical disappearance from our
country of such horses as those used in
the mail and ordinary coaches and in post
carriages was nothing short of a national
calamity. They were horses of the essen-
tially useful stamp, sound, hardy and endur-
ing, just such animals as are indispensable
for cavalry, artillery, and transport work on
a campaign. And though the full import-
ance of the loss which had befallen us was
evident, the difficulties in the way of retriev-
ing our position as breeders was not less
evident. The breeding of horses had ceased
to be remunerative, and as a natural conse-
quence men had ceased to breed them,
preferring to devote their energies and
capital to stock of a stamp for which they
could depend upon finding a market. Any
horses of the useful class that were produced
found their way, if worth having, into the
hands of foreigners, as we have seen.
In March, 1887, Lord Ribblesdale took
the matter up and in a very able speech
8i
drew the attention of the House of Lords
to the question of the " Horse Supply for
Military and Industrial Purposes." He ren-
dered a tribute to the work that was being
done by private persons and by societies
and associations, thanks to whose endeavours
the breeders of Shire horses and Clydesdales
were prospering. The brisk foreign demand
for British stock proved its merit, but so
long as halfbred horses suitable for remounts
and all useful purposes were as scarce as
they were, while we were importing horses
to the value of over a quarter of a million
sterling annually, including harness-horses
and match pairs of carriage-horses, we had
evidence that we were not breeding high
class horses up to the demand for our own
daily increasing needs.
He urged that the money given in Queen's
Plates be diverted from its then use and
devoted to subsidising approved stallions,
which should serve at low fees ; and that
large prizes should be offered from the
public purse for foals, yearlings, and two-
year-olds. As regarded military horses he
advised the purchase of two-year-olds to be
kept at maturing depots till old enough to
take in hand ; and in recommending the
system of direct purchase from the breeder
6
82
referred to the fact that direct purchase
was approved by Baron Nathansius, the
French Inspector General of Remounts, in
a letter which that officer had addressed to
the present writer.
Lord Ribblesdale paid me the compliment
of seeking my assistance in his task : and
in order to obtain the actual views of the
horse-breeding interest in England, Colonel
Sir Nigel Kingscote, Sir Jacob Wilson
and the writer met in February, 1887, and
drew up a series of questions.
These questions were printed and sent out
to between three and four hundred of the
best known horse-breeders in the Kingdom ;
to all, in point of fact, whose experience
would lend weight to their views and whose
addresses could be secured. The principal
questions put were as follows :
"Q. i. Assuming that an annual Grant from the
Government of 5,000 be made for the encouragement
of the breeding of halfbred horses, to whom in your
opinion ought such grant to be entrusted for dis-
tribution ? Whether to a specially constituted Board
of Trustees or to any other body ?
" Q. 2. Is it your opinion that the distribution of
the above Grant should take the form of a subsidy in
the shape of Premiums for Thoroughbred Stallions
covering at a moderate fee similar to those offered by
the Hunters' Improvement Society at their Annual
Spring Show, and this year by the Royal Agricultural
Society at Newcastle ? "
83
In answer to Question i, 194 replies were
received in time for tabulation ; of these 79
were in favour of the grant being distributed
by a specially constituted Board of Trustees ;
60 were in favour of its distribution by the
Royal Agricultural, Hibernian and Cale-
donian Societies ; 33 preferred that the duty
should be vested in local and county societies,
and 22 offered no opinion.
Of answers to Question 2, 1 13 were in the
affirmative, 44 replied " No," and partial
concurrence was expressed by 19 ; a few
gentlemen advised subsidising roomy half-
bred mares. The body of opinion so col-
lected and tabulated was placed in Lord
Ribblesdale's hands about the end of April ;
but not until August did opportunity occur
for him to ask in the House of Lords
whether the Government proposed to take
any action in the matter. He referred briefly
to the fact that the breeders of the Kingdom
had been circularised on the subject, but
omitted to support his enquiry by any
analysis of the very important and valuable
mass of expert opinion thus placed at his
disposal.
It is quite probable that during the months
which elapsed between receipt of the in-
formation we had collected for him and the
8 4
date of his August speech, Lord Ribblesdale
had made use of them to influence the
Government in the desired direction ; for
the speech appeared to be framed solely
for the purpose of affording Lord Salisbury
opportunity to declare the intentions of his
Government.
In brief, the Premier announced that it
was proposed to devote the money theretofore
given as Queen's Plates to breeding ; that this
sum, ,3,000 a year, would be made up to
5,000 by a small addition to the Estimates ;
and that it was proposed to assign the duty
of administering the fund to an independent
Trust. The Royal Commission on Horse
Breeding was appointed, consisting of the
Duke of Portland, the Earl of Coventry,
Lord Ribblesdale, Mr. Chaplin, M.P., Mr.
F. G. Ravenhill, Mr. John Gilmour, Sir
Jacob Wilson and Mr. Bowen Jones ; and,
acting in concert with the Royal Agricultural
Society, the Commissioners, in December,
1887, issued their first Report.
This document stated that only in recent
years had any further necessity arisen
to encourage breeding apart from private
enterprise ; the scarcity of horses was due,
in their opinion, to the creation of large
breeding studs by foreign Governments, who
85
came to us for their stock and caused a
drain upon our resources.
The Commission reported " there was
little doubt that the Queen's Plates had
failed to fulfil their purpose ; " but perhaps
it had been nearer the mark to say that
the Royal Plates had ceased to fulfil their
original purpose, owing to the multiplication
of valuable stakes which reduced the Royal
hundred-guinea prizes to third-class rank and
rendered them useless as factors in the
encouragement of breeding. The Commis-
sion recommended the abolition of the Royal
Plates and the application of the money
thereto devoted to a scheme of Queen's
Premiums, under which sound and approved
thoroughbred sires should stand in specified
districts and under control of a local com-
mittee, serve mares at a low fee. The
scheme was at once adopted, and has
worked well in practice.
The year 1896 saw the appointment of the
Royal Commission to Inquire into the Horse
Breeding Industry in Ireland. Though the
enquiry resolved itself into a comparatively
narrow issue, a very large amount of
evidence, much of it exceedingly interesting
and instructive, was recorded. In pursuance
of their policy of encouraging the breeding
86
of all live stock in Ireland, it was proposed
to send over selected stallions, thoroughbred
and roadster, for the use of owners of mares
in the horse-breeding districts. There was
much diversity of opinion on the propriety
of establishing hackney sires in a country so
famed for its hunters, and the principal
object of the Commission was to take the
opinions of experts on the proposed step.
While the majority of witnesses were
averse from the introduction of the hackney
sire, on the ground that the happy-go-lucky
methods of the small Irish farmer would
lead to intermingling of blood to the ultimate
deterioration of the Irish hunter, it was
generally acknowledged that the bone and
substance of the hackney was eminently
desirable in many districts to improve the
character of the local stock.
Could a workable system of mare regis-
tration have been devised to prevent hunter
mares being sent to hackney sires in those
counties where hunter-breeding is a valuable
industry, there can be no doubt that the
introduction of such sires would lay the
foundation in Ireland of the breed of high
class harness-horses in which Britain is so
singularly deficient, and which could be pro-
duced in Ireland with as much, if not greater,
87
success, as they are produced on the Con-
tinent.
Her Majesty's reign has seen the rapid
growth of demands from every civilised
country in the world for British horses of
every breed, eloquent proof of the esteem in
which our horses are held abroad and of the
success which has attended our endeavours
to improve them.
We have, it must be confessed, " gone
back ' in our department of horse-breed-
ing ; the supersession of coaches and their
teams of fast and enduring horses by
railway traffic has brought about neglect
of this most useful stamp of animal. The
tens of thousands of coach horses formerly
required created a large and valuable in-
dustry, and it is only in the natural order of
things that when railways made an end of
the coaching era that horse-breeders should
have turned their energies into new channels.
It is only within recent years that breeders
have recognised how much combined and
systematic endeavour can do to assist them
in their task of improving our several breeds ;
and it is worth observing that the most im-
portant societies for the promotion of horse-
breeding (apart from the General Stud Book)
were all founded in the short space of nine
88
years, one after the other, till at the present
day every breed is represented by a body
whose sole aim is to care for its interests.
LIGHT HORSES.
The Hunters Improvement Society, founded
1885. Secretary, Mr. A. B. Charlton, 12,
Hanover Square, London, W.
The Hackney Horse Society, founded
1884. Secretary, Mr. Euren, 12, Hanover
Square, W.
The Cleveland Bay Horse Society, founded
1884. Secretary, Mr. F. W. Horsfall, Potto
Grange, Northallerton, Yorks.
The Yorkshire Coach Horse Society,
founded 1886. Secretary, Mr. J. White,
Appleton Roebuck, Yorkshire.
The Trotting Union of Great Britain
and Ireland, founded 1889. Secretary, Mr.
E. Cathcart, 7, Trinity Square, Brixton,
London.
The Polo Pony Society, founded 1894.
Secretary, Mr. A. B. Charlton.
The New Forest Pony Society, founded
1891. Secretary, Mr. H. St. Barbe,
Lymington, Hants.
The Shetland Pony Society, founded 1891.
Secretary, Mr. Robert R. Ross, 35, Market
Street, Aberdeen.
8 9
HEAVY HORSES,
The Shire Horse Society, founded 1878
(as the English Cart Horse Society ; name
changed in 1884). Secretary, Mr. J.
Sloughgrove, 12, Hanover Square, W.
The Suffolk Horse Society, founded 1891.
Secretary, Mr. Fred Smith, Woodbridge,
Suffolk.
The Clydesdale Horse Society, founded
1883. Secretary, Mr. Archibald MacMilage,
93, Hope Street, Glasgow.
London Cart Horse Parade Society,
founded 1885. Secretary, Mr. Euren, 12,
Hanover Square, London, W.
The dates when these Societies were
established are given, as the information
eloquently bears out that passage in the
Report of the Royal Commission on Horse-
breeding which refers to private enterprise.
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